Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared victory in the federal election, saying it is vital for the nation that all sides of politics work together to make this term of parliament work.
Mr Turnbull’s victory speech on Sunday afternoon came just hours after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten rang him to concede defeat.
“We have won the election,” Mr Turnbull told reporters, noting that the Coalition has received around 800,000 more first preference votes than Labor.
Mr Turnbull said he would visit the Governor General next week to be officially sworn in again as prime minister. Before then he will have to sign an official Coalition agreement with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.
“It is vital that this parliament work,” Mr Turnbull said.
“It is vital that we work together and as far as we can ensure that we all agree… consistent with our policies that we took to the election.”
Mr Turnbull said he had his one-year old granddaughter Isla on his hip when Mr Shorten rang to concede defeat eight days after Australians went to the polls.
He said he would work with Mr Shorten on a proposal to introduce electronic voting to speed up the process of finalising the election results.
“Yes, this is something we must look at,” he said.
“This has been a passion of mine, an interest of mine, for a long time.”
Mr Turnbull said he also wanted to investigate the regulation of “robocalls” and text messages sent out by political parties during election campaigns.
He said parties should be required to declare they had authorised such messages as they do with television and radio advertisements.
The Coalition is confident it will win the 76 seats required to form a majority government and could win 77 seats if the counting of postal and absentee votes continues to trend its way.
Mr Shorten earlier held a press conference to officially acknowledge Mr Turnbull would form government.
“I respect that Mr Turnbull has won government - be it a minority government or a majority of one or two,” Mr Shorten said.
“I believe that the government has won the election absolutely.”
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
